Abstract
We considered the role of orthography and task-related processing mechanisms in the activation of morphologically related complex words during bilingual word processing. So far, it has only been shown that such morphologically related words (i.e., morphological family members) are activated through the semantic and morphological overlap they share with the target word. In this study, we investigated family size effects in Dutch-English identical cognates (e.g., tent in both languages), non-identical cognates (e.g., pil and pill, in English and Dutch, respectively), and non-cognates (e.g., chicken in English). Because of their cross-linguistic overlap in orthography, reading a cognate can result in activation of family members both languages. Cognates are therefore well-suited for studying mechanisms underlying bilingual activation of morphologically complex words. We investigated family size effects in an English lexical decision task and a Dutch-English language decision task, both performed by Dutch-English bilinguals. English lexical decision showed a facilitatory effect of English and Dutch family size on the processing of English-Dutch cognates relative to English non-cognates. These family size effects were not dependent on cognate type. In contrast, for language decision, in which a bilingual context is created, Dutch and English family size effects were inhibitory. Here, the combined family size of both languages turned out to better predict reaction time than the separate family size in Dutch or English. Moreover, the combined family size interacted with cognate type: the response to identical cognates was slowed by morphological family members in both languages. We conclude that (1) family size effects are sensitive to the task performed on the lexical items, and (2) depend on both semantic and formal aspects of bilingual word processing. We discuss various mechanisms that can explain the observed family size effects in a spreading activation framework.
Highlights
Past research has shown that the mental lexicon is a highly interactive system, in which words that share orthographic/phonological, morphological, or semantic features can be co-activated along with the presented word
We examine how cross-language family size affects the response to two types of cognates and non-cognates in a lexical decision task and a language decision task
As predicted, in the English lexical decision task of Experiment 1, Dutch-English bilinguals were sensitive to the frequency of the English target words
Summary
Past research has shown that the mental lexicon is a highly interactive system, in which words that share orthographic/phonological, morphological, or semantic features can be co-activated along with the presented word. One demonstration of this interactive nature is the finding that upon reading a word like house, morphologically related complex words are co-activated that contain this word, like housekeeper, housing, and wheelhouse (Schreuder and Baayen, 1997). The manipulation of task and item type allows us to test the hypothesis that bilingual family size effects vary in accordance with task demands and degree of cross-linguistic orthographic overlap.
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